Rainy Day in Dublin
by waterlilylf
Summary: 1x2x5 Duo POV - Oh, I hate summarising stories! - basically the guys are on holiday in Ireland and surprisingly enough, it's raining...some fluff and sap and a little angst..but I wanted to try my hand at writing a 1x2x5 so here goes...
1. Part I

Disclaimer - the boys belong to various wealthy corporations, not me.

Note - I'm blaming this one partly on the fact that it actually did rain here this morning, and partly on the fact that cjmarie has corrupted me to threesomes with a couple of her latest stories…

Warning - little bit of angst, little bit of sap. Shameless plug for Dublin as a holiday destination. (Well, our economy needs tourism…) 1x2x5

**Rainy Day in Dublin:**

'It's still raining.' It was too; I'd thought seeing the Indian monsoon while I was there on a Preventers' assignment had been bad, but even that didn't compare to the sheer sheets of grey rain pouring down the window of our hotel room in Dublin.

'As opposed to your last weather update five minutes ago?' Wufei sounded a bit tetchy; I think he might have been suffering from jet lag. He and Heero were in the process of unpacking their neatly folded clothes and putting them tidily away. Wufie seemed to be sorting his by colour, while Heero was going by fabric.

By contrast, my bulging rucksack was leaning against the bed, and my favourite pair of black jeans had somehow escaped and were already slithering down on to the floor. Do I need to say that many of our the rows we'd had in the four months we'd been together had centred on them being obsessive-compulsive neat freaks and me being…not.

'I can't believe you guys are unpacking when we're only going to be here for three nights.' That was our programme; a long weekend in Dublin and then on to France and Italy for three weeks.

'We're almost finished,' Heero shook out a dress shirt before placing it carefully on a hanger. 'Why don't you look at the guide book, Duo, and decide what you'd like to do first.'

'Mmm.' That bloody guide book was already the bane of my life. I think the two of them knew the contents off by heart; for weeks, I'd only had to mention anything that had a vague Irish connection and they'd bash my ear for hours with all sorts of 'interesting' facts. Instead I picked up a the hotel magazine which listed recommend places to eat and drink.

'Can you believe they only have fifteen Starbucks in this whole country? Fifteen! I mean, we pass twice that many just driving to work. And there's no Wendy's, no Taco Bell, no IHOP, no…'

'Ireland has its own very unique culture,' Wufei chipped in. 'You can't expect everything to be exactly like home.'

'Yeah, I know that,' I muttered, staring out at the rain again, wishing I was back home. 'I can't believe this weather. The on line weather forecast said today was going to be fine.'

'It'll probably clear up later,' Heero slid his empty suitcase under the bed and came to join me on the window seat. 'Apparently the Irish weather tends to be variable. If it doesn't we can always go to the National Museum. They have an exhibition on this month about Viking longships.'

'I want to see the Chester Beatty Library,' Wufei stated. 'It has a wonderful collection of oriental manuscripts and prints. Even some Japanese ones, Heero.'

'We definitely have to go to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. It's the oldest manuscript in the world. And they run historical walking tours.'

'If the rain does stop, there's the open top bus tour. That might be a nice way to get an overview of the whole city.'

'Sally said she did a tour of the Guinness Brewery when she was here last year. And it's right beside Kilmainham Jail which is a vitally important part of Irish history…'

I think they both realised at the same time that, while they were blathering on, I hadn't said one word, just sat with my face pressed against the window, watching the raindrops.

'What would you like to do, love?' Heero asked quietly.

I just shrugged; there was no room for Wufei to sit beside us, but he knelt in front of me and took my hands in his.

'Are you not feeling well, Duo? Do you want to lie down for a bit?'

'I'm OK. I just - I'm not sure how to do this whole vacation thing.' They both just stared at me, like I'd said something ridiculous. 'Look, I've never really had a proper holiday before, that's all. I'm not sure what to do. All this sightseeing stuff, I've never done anything like that.'

'But - you've been taking annual leave from work,' Wufei said uncertainly. 'You haven't just been staying at home, have you?'

'No.' They were both looking at me expectantly, and I couldn't help blushing. 'I went to L2 a couple times, that's all. To help out with an orphanage.'

They both got - that _look_ then; the look they get when I say something about the way I grew up, like they just want to tuck me up in warmed cashmere blankets and spend the rest of their lives caring for me.

'Oh, Duo. Love.' Wufei positively tugged me onto the floor beside me, wrapping me in a giant hug; Heero slid down behind me and then I had two sets of arms holding me tight.

It's - still something of a novelty, that we do this at all. Still not so many months since I progressed from being the third wheel in their relationship to being - I don't know - the axel maybe; holding them both together.

'We'll do anything you want. You know that. Whatever you like.' Wufei kissed me gently; I think he sometimes sees my childhood as a personal affront, and then blames himself for not second - guessing things I don't know anything about. Hero's a little more laid back, but then he didn't have the easiest time either, growing up.

'Maybe you guys could just, you know, chill a bit? It feels like we're on a mission sometimes and you want to plan every second of every day. I keep thinking you've got a spreadsheet hidden somewhere and everything's already mapped out.

Heero laughed softly behind me, his breath tickling the back of my neck, and Wufei blushed.

'It was only the one time! And we hadn't even two full days in Florence and we wanted to make the most of it!'

'What would you like to do, sweetheart?' Heero asked.

'I don't know. Maybe just wander 'round a bit and get a feel of the place. Hilde asked me to get her one of those Irish knitted sweaters - what are they called again?'

'Aran jumpers,' Wufei supplied. A few minutes earlier, he would have given me chapter and verse on where these sweaters came from, the exact history of the different patterns, and the best locations in the city to buy them. Now, he heroically refrained.

'And we could maybe get a drink and look for a nice place to have dinner tonight?'

'The guide book recommends a list of restaurants where they serve traditional foods and have live music,' Heero started to reach for the damn book and then stopped. 'Or, as Duo said, we could just wander around and see what we find…'

'Let's go.' Wufei got to his feet and pulled me up. 'I think you're getting good at this vacation thing, you know that?'

'You know something else?' I looked out the window, still holding his hand. 'It's stopped raining.'


	2. Part 2

Disclaimer: Well, I don't own Gundam Wing or any of the establishments mentioned in this story. Nor do I work for the Dublin Tourist Board!

Note; this was meant to be a one-off. Really. That it isn't is entirely due to Kaeru Shisho, for asking so many questions that she made **_me_** curious about the answers, and to everyone else who reviewed the first part.

****

Rainy Day in Dublin - Part II:

The rain only held off for as long as it took for us to collect our coats and head downstairs.

The guy at Reception burst out laughing at our faces when we looked out the front door, told us the weather forecast was good and produced an umbrella from under his desk. It was a massive thing, big enough to shelter a family of ten, probably.

I ended up being the one in the middle, trying to hold it up, with the guys on either side. I'm not entirely comfortable with the whole PDA thing - it still surprises me that they are, to be honest - but they've been together for nearly three years by now; I'm still a fairly recent addition .

It was never a good idea on L2 to be too obvious about certain things; even though Dylan and I had been together for over a year, we'd never so much as held hands in public. I think Heero and Wufei were enjoying the chance to get close under fairly innocuous circumstances, Wufei's hand was just touching mine on the handle, and Heero was walking way closer to me than he usually does.

Our hotel was located in an area called Temple Bar; it had been too dark to see much when we'd arrived so everything was new. Narrow cobblestone streets, winding past what Wufei said had once been old warehouses and which had been converted into shops and cafes and artists' studios. There was even an open air food market in one of the little squares.

'This is really cool, isn't it? Nothing like I'd imagined,' I remarked, turning to look at a girl playing a violin and nearly losing my footing on the wet cobbles; Wufei caught me before I slipped, taking the opportunity to slide one arm around my waist.

'What did you think it would be like?'

'I dunno, really. Lots of green. Sheep. Little cottages. Leprachauns. Everyone with red hair, wearing those knitted sweaters.'

'I think that's only in movies,' Heero grinned at me. 'But if you want to get that sweater for Hilde, that shop's got some in the window.'

Wufei tried to practice his Gaelic on the shop assistant, but he turned to be Polish and thought at first that we were non-English speaking tourists. We were still teasing him about that as we wandered back outside (still raining, by the way) so we ended up ducking in and out of various little shops.

Irish linen sheets were ridiculously expensive, but we got a set of table napkins and some crystal candle holders for the living room. It still surprises me sometimes, how domesticated those two are. Well, I maybe should have got a clue during the War; they were the only two of us who actually waxed and polished their Gundams.

We ended up going to a museum, the Chester Beatty Library, mainly because it was too wet to do much outdoor stuff. It wasn't actually too bad; there was a cool little courtyard café where we had coffee first. I think we'd probably still be there if I hadn't pointed out that the sun had come out; Wufei had discovered a collection of books carved in jade from China, and Heero was practically drooling over some Japanese painted scrolls.

Fortunately the sun came out after a couple of hours and we wandered down to the river, amazed at how fast the weather could change. The city looked totally different under a dazzling blue sky, with the sun sparkles dancing on the water. We took turns posing and taking photos on the cutest little bridge imaginable, adorned with antique lampposts and fancy wrought iron railings, and then found the perfect place for lunch.

I think the guys had actually made a note of the Winding Stair Cafe from their guide book, but we just 'happened' to walk across the bridge and Heero suggested that the first place across the road 'looked interesting' and by then we were inside and I was hooked. A book-lined staircase wound up a couple of storeys, with more books piled into little rooms, so that by the time we were ensconced at a window table in the top floor restaurant we each had a bag of books, fighting for table space with the menus.

'I don't actually know what half of this stuff is on the menu, do you? What the heck is champ? Or boxty?'

'Something to do with potatoes, I think,' Wufei was frowning over the menu; he hates having to admit he doesn't know something.

In the end, we let the waitress (red hair; yes!) interpret. Heero the fish addict got seafood chowder with soda bread; Wufei had bacon and cabbage with parsley sauce, which he claimed was the country's traditional meal, and I had bubble and squeak, just because of the name; it turned out to be mashed potatoes friend with turnip and topped with grilled cheese, way nicer than it sounds.

Miraculously, the sun was still shining when we finally left, taking the 'scenic route' back to our hotel and wandering around leafy squares lined by Georgian houses, and back down Grafton Street, a long paved street with flower sellers and street musicians on every corner.

Last stop was the Butler's Chocolate Café for hot chocolate; we were getting fairly good at weather forecasting now; the showers rarely lasted for long and were a nice excuse to get a drink or browse around a shop. The drinks were amazing - like drinking warm melted chocolate - and Heero also picked out a selection of handmade chocolates.

'More food?' I grinned at him; I'm usually the one with the sweet tooth and they're the ones handing out the carrot sticks. 'You're not still hungry, are you?'

'They might be nice for later,' he remarked, fairly blandly, but with a very slight smile that suggested that consumption of said chocolate would doubtless involve a certain amount of nudity and our very large bed. Wufei was wearing a similar expression, not quite looking at me, but nudging his foot discreetly against mine.

Um, do I even need to mention we went back to the hotel pretty soon after that? Didn't think so.

I was perched on the bed, unlacing my shoes when Wufei put the box into my hand, with Heero looking over his shoulder.

It shouldn't have surprised me; they were always giving me presents. Small things, usually; the latest book by an author I liked, or a CD by a band I'd admired on the radio. Heero always managed to wrangle an hour away from the office on Friday mornings so he could drive to a French bakery and pick up a box of chocolate almond croissants for breakfast in bed on Saturday; Wufei had to fly to Tokyo once a month or so for work - he's with the Preventers' Asian Intelligence- and he always brought me back of a bag of my favourite Japanese candy.

It was nice, but it was sort of weird as well. I wasn't used to people just giving me random gifts. Or gifts at all really. Dylan and I had exchanged presents at Christmas but that was pretty much it, and it had taken a while before I could just accept these little gestures graciously; it wasn't just me, they got each other stuff all the time, and I'd recently started dropping by a specialty tea shop to get Wufei some new flavours, and going out to buy sushi for Heero when he was working through lunch.

So there I was, sitting on the edge of the bed, half dressed and holding a little green box, embossed with a golden harp, in the palm of my hand.

It was a ring. There was a little white card with it, saying it was called a Claddagh ring and explaining the design. The heart was for love, of course; the hands clasping the heart stood for friendship, and the crown surmounting the heart represented loyalty. It was beautiful.

'Duo? Don't you like it?'

'It's doesn't necessarily mean we're asking for a commitment or anything. We just saw it and thought you might like it.'

'You don't have to wear it..'

I looked down at my hands, clasping the little box. I'd only ever worn a ring once before and it had been a plastic one Dylan had got in a Christmas cracker, but he'd given it to me, and I'd worn it for a couple of months until it feel apart.

This was - slightly different. There was a little list of instructions on how the ring should be worn in the box, and I slid it onto the third finger of my right hand, with the heart pointing towards me, towards my heart, knowing they would understand what that meant.

'It's gorgeous. Really. But you don't have to keep giving me stuff.'

'Why not? We like giving you things.'

'It suits you, love.' Heero picked up my hand and kissed it. 'And it'll show any prospective Romeos that you're taken.'

'Very much taken,' Wufei agreed, sounding quite smug about the fact. I privately doubted that anyone would try hitting on me with those two around, but they are both slightly on the possessive side. OK, that's something of an understatement.

'They'll only know what it means if they're Irish,' I couldn't help teasing them a bit. 'What about all the gorgeous French and Italian guys who're going to proposition me over the next couple of weeks?'

'Them, we'll just have to kill,' Wufei growled, pushing me slowly backwards on to the bed and following me down.

'There are other ways to let people know you're … not available.' That was Heero, spooning in beside us and fastening his lips to the side of my neck.

'Mmmm.' It's difficult to maintain any level of conscious thought when you've got not one but two seriously hot guys doing their level, devoted best to make you scream. The last thing that drifted into my brain before I surrendered was that I'd have to sneak off the next day and get a couple of matching rings for them. Didn't want any suave continental types trying to make a move on either of my boyfriends, after all.

The procedure for wearing a Claddagh Ring is as follows; if you're single you wear it on your right hand, with the 'point' of the heart facing your fingernails; if you're in a relationship, it's the same hand but worn the opposite way ie the heart is facing your knuckles. I think historically you're officially only supposed to wear it on your left hand if you're officially engaged, or married, but I know some people who are in long term relationships and do wear their ring on the left hand.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer - Well, in my dreams, they're mine….

Note - Many thanks to KS for proofreading the very rough first draft of this one, and to Snow for liking it….

Pairing - 1x2x5

Warning - squelchy sap and ….a teeny bit of retrospective angst. Just can't get away from it, can I?

**Rainy Day in Dublin - Part III:**

OK, if anyone tells you it doesn't always rain in Ireland, don't believe them. Seriously.

The thing is, rain isn't always bad.

It's actually kind of nice walking around under an umbrella with your two boyfriends crowded in on either side of you. Even though the umbrella's pretty big, there's still three of us, so we do have to crowd in a little so we all stay dry. And there's usually one of them holding it up with me, and every now and then our hands slide together on the wet handle.

It's a good excuse for dodging into little shops that might look interesting, or for staying that bit longer in a café and maybe ordering a second hot chocolate or a hot scone.

The receptionist in our hotel had recommended hot whiskies as a way of keeping the damp out, and that's become a little before-bed ritual for us.

Rain's a reason to stay in bed for just those few extra minutes in the morning, to see if it's going to clear up before deciding what to do, and then having to abandon any tentative plans we'd discussed the night before because, after we'd fallen asleep a second time, there was really no point doing anything except calling down for room service.

And whenever we do get back to the hotel, I tend to get stripped straightaway and thrust under a hot shower, or into the bath. That doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense; I mean where's the logic in getting me even wetter inside of drying me off? But at least one of them invariably ends up in the water with me, so I'm not going to complain.

But they were sure that if the tiniest raindrop landed on my skin or my hair, I'd melt away, so after I'd had my shower or my bath, I invariably ended up on the bed with Heero towelling my hair and Wufei doing magical, miraculous things to my feet with his hands and a tube of lotion. Things usually took a fairly predictable course after that.

A few months ago I got a chill while I was on a stakeout. Somehow it morphed into double pneumonia and I ended up staying a couple of weeks in hospital. The illness wasn't really all that serious; the main threat to my health was that I'd end up jumping out of the window to get away from the two of them.

We'd only just gotten together, and they insisted on taking time off to haunt my hospital room. Outside visiting hours, they hassled the medical staff over my temperature having risen infinitesimally during the night, or demanding that I should be getting some new treatment they'd been researching over the net.

When they were actually allowed into my room, they sat on either side of the bed and stared at me, desperately trying to anticipate my every need. They even bumped heads a couple of times when they both leaped up to fluff my pillow, or refill my water glass.

I think someone, maybe Quat or Tro, mentioned that I was finding all this - oppressive, because they did let up for a couple of days, and then I caught a small infection and it was worse than ever.

It got to the point where I was starting to dread going home, where it would be open season on coddling me, and there' be no nice nurses around to order them out. I just snapped one day, after Wufei had insisted on tucking my blanket around me in five different ways and Heero had reduced a poor little student nurse to tears when she forgot to check there was ice in my water jug.

I think two weeks of frustration came bursting out in as many minutes and they both just looked so - stricken after I was through. We ended up in a weird sort of group hug on my bed; they both desperately wanted to hold me and were terrified they'd hurt me so in the end I just sort of draped myself over the two of them and hung on.

We managed to sort a few things out. They agreed they'd both been - ahem! - a little on the overprotective side, and I admitted that I wasn't very good at being cared for. Never really had any practice in that sort of thing.

They assured me they'd stop making their concern quite so obvious, and I promised I'd work on accepting the whole being-fussed-over thing a little bit better.

They did try to make an effort once I was home; well, they took turns staying home with me so I only had to deal with one of them at a time. Heero went around for days biting his tongue on things he wanted to say and was scared would somehow upset me, and Wufei nobly tried not to call home every fifteen minutes when he was at work.

It took time but eventually I realised they weren't doing any of this to torture me, but because they cared. They made heroic efforts to back off, when I was awake, but I kept catching concerned glances when they thought I was wasn't looking, and I knew whichever of them was home was constantly sending the other texts on how I was doing.

They were trying but they were slowly driving me mad. I yelled at Wufei the third night I was home, and he hadn't really done anything. Just handed me my dinner with the neatly chicken cut up into bite-sized pieces so I could stay lying on the couch and eat with a fork. He'd meant it as a kind, sweet gesture, and I saw it as reinforcing the fact that I was like some useless invalid who couldn't do anything for himself.

I stormed off to the bedroom, giving the door a good hard slam to emphasise that I wanted to be alone. Of course, once I was alone in the vast bed I still thought of as theirs, I started to feel the first niggles of guilt; I wasn't just feeble; I was ungrateful as hell and there was no way they'd want to put up with that for much longer.

I fell asleep curled into a ball and doing my best not to cry, in case they heard. I think I woke up several hours later; it was dark and I wasn't alone any more.

Heero was stroking my hair, soft as a whisper, and Wufei had one hand lightly over my heart. Heero was murmuring that they just had to learn to lighten up a bit, and stop smothering me, and our Chinese partner was saying, in this awful choked whisper I'd never imagined coming out of Chang Wufei's mouth, that he'd been trying, but it was so hard.

I think I realised it really dawned on me, for the first time, listening to them, just how they felt about me. The thing that choked me up was Heero's quiet voice in the darkness, telling Wufei that I needed some time, needed space to get used to all this, to learn to depend on them for a change, and I hadn't meant to hurt him.

It occurred to me then, that maybe my wanting to be totally independent wasn't the best way to live, not if it hurt the people who wanted to get close, and maybe I could start leaning on them, just a little.

Of course, things didn't change overnight. I learned to bite my tongue and smile and thank them for the little things they did, even if I could have quite easily done them myself.

It kind of helped when I realised it wasn't just me who got fussed over; Heero admitted that when he'd been shot on a mission, Wufei hadn't been able to sleep properly for weeks, and Wufei confided that whenever he travels with his job, Heero calls him to make sure he's eating properly and taking some time to himself away from the office.

I'm a lot more at ease with the whole attention thing now. I've gone from discomfort to resentment via frustration all the way to the point where I can positively wallow in it.

It's - kind of nice, actually; now that I'm starting to accept just how much they care. Letting the people who love you look after once in a while isn't such a bad thing. And nor is rain, really, when you try to look for the positive side.


End file.
